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Cardinal Victor Fernández also stated that the female diaconate question, although Pope Francis considers it not “mature,” is not a “closed issue.”
Cardinal Víctor Fernández at a speech at the general congregation on Oct. 21 recalled that for the Holy Father the question of the female diaconate “is not ripe.”
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), has reportedly apologized for what he called a “misunderstanding” regarding his absence from an Oct. 18 meeting of synod delegates about a Vatican study group on women’s roles in the Church.
“I think we have to look at the question very much from … the Spirit. ‘Is the Spirit calling women?’” said Sister Mary Theresa Barron, OLA.
The Synod on Synodality commenced its second day on Thursday in which 356 participants convened at the Vatican.
Debate on women’s participation in the Catholic Church — including the idea of whether women could one day be deacons — is not on the agenda for this month’s assembly of the Synod on Synodality, but synodal conversations on the topic continue, some at the explicit invitation of Pope Francis.
Cardinal Mario Grech said the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith is studying “the women’s diaconate” within the context of its in-depth study of ministries.
The Synod on Synodality, the monthlong assembly convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican, released its final document containing the discussion of several hot-button issues which it calls “controversial”: the idea of women deacons, optional priestly celibacy, and the accompaniment of people struggling with their gender or sexual identity.
Pope Francis reaffirmed the impossibility of women becoming priests, or even modern Church deacons, in an interview for a book released Tuesday in Italy.
The Vatican announced Wednesday that Pope Francis has created a new commission to study the question of a female diaconate in the Catholic Church, after some members of the 2019 Amazon synod requested the pope re-establish a 2016 commission on the subject.
At least four of the 12 language groups at the Amazon synod overtly propose the ordination of married men to the priesthood in summary reports published by the Vatican Friday, with the majority of the discussion groups expressing openness to the idea.